There have been many different kinds and types of wind-propelled sail toy vehicles and recreational vehicles known in the art. Typically, such land vehicles include a sail for capturing the wind, a set of wheels for permitting the toy or vehicle to travel along the ground and a mechanism for steering or directing the toy or vehicle in its course of travel. For example, reference may be made to the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,351,542; 3,572,740; 4,049,287; 4,332,395; and 4,408,772.
While such prior known devices may have been successful in some applications, it has been difficult, if not impossible, to stabilize the toy or vehicle to prevent it from tipping over, while at the same time permitting it to travel at a relatively high rate of speed. Thus, several conventional sail toys or vehicles have employed stabilizing techniques in an attempt to allow the vehicle or toy to remain upright in a controlled manner, while permitting the vehicle or toy to be propelled rapidly along the ground by the wind.
One such attempted technique, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,806 includes using a wheeled outrigger assembly, which is flexible along its length, so that as the vehicle is driven into a heeling position, the heeling is opposed by the resiliency of the outrigger to help maintain it in an upright manner. In this manner, the wheeled vehicle tends to approximate the reaction of a water-born sailing vessel which is wind driven. While such an attempt tends to reduce the instability of the vehicle as it is propelled along the ground. Such a technique has proven to be less than totally satisfactory, in that other problems result from such a construction. In this regard, the flexible outrigger assembly can be subjected to damage caused by bending, when the vehicle has heeled over due to excessive wind forces. Furthermore, such a prior known design does require the use of two (2) additional wheels for a total of five (5). In addition, assembly of the vehicle is unduly complicated, and thus assembly time has been unacceptably long for some applications, because of the need for installing the special outrigger assembly.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a light-weight wind-propelled sail toy for overcoming the problems associated with instability, especially at high speeds, without the need for flimsy and flexible outrigger assemblies. Such a light-weight high-speed vehicle should be easily and safely maneuvered with little or no danger of tipping over inadvertently at high speeds while traveling along the ground.
Another attempted solution has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,280,501 which a model sailboat is provided with a radio controlled steering of a main sail, as well as a radio controlled rudder, to enable an operator of the vessel to approximate trimming of the main sheet, in order to prevent capsizing as the vessel reacts to the wind. However, while such an attempt could reduce the instability of the vehicle, it has a major disadvantage when the principles of the U.S. Pat. No. 3,280,501 are applied to land vehicles as contemplated by the present invention. In a traditional tricycle type wheel arrangement, a land vehicle does not respond in a heeling manner that is similar to that experienced in water-borne vessels. In other words, a land vehicle is level with the ground unless and until the model heels. In this regard, should the wind velocity overcome the center of gravity of the vehicle, it heels over very abruptly, without any notable resistance to the wind. Therefore, there is no time for the operator to react by adjusting the mast to prevent the vehicle from overturning.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a light-weight wind-propelled sail toy for overcoming the problems associated with instability during high speed operation. Such a vehicle should be very stable under a variety of wind conditions, to prevent, or at least greatly reduce the risk of unexpectedly overturning the vehicle.
Such a vehicle should be relatively inexpensive to manufacture. It should also be able to be assembled and disassembled in a convenient manner. In this regard, once disassembled, it should be able to be stored or transported in a convenient manner.